Jordan has a highly developed communications infrastructure. Jordan's telecom infrastructure is growing at a very rapid pace and continually being updated and expanded. Communications in Jordan occur across many media, including telephone, radio, television, and internet.

In Mid 2004, XPress Telecom was launched as the country's digital radio trunking operator.

Telephone system: The service has improved recently with the increased use of digital switching equipment, but better access to the telephone system is needed in some rural areas and easier access to pay telephones is needed by the urban public.

Television

Television broadcast stations: 20 (plus 96 repeaters) (as of 1995)

Televisions: 500,000 (as of 1997)

PCs

40% of Jordanian households have a PC. This is expected to double in the coming years when the government reduces the sales tax on PCs and internet service in an effort to make Jordan the high-tech capital of the Middle East. The Jordanian Government is also providing every university student with a laptop in partnership with the private sector. All Jordan's schools are connected with internet service and the Jordanian Government is heavily purchasing computers and smart technology to be equipped in Jordan's classrooms.

Internet

The kingdom ranks as one of the countries whose fixed Internet network performance is improving at an advanced level. Internet penetration in Jordan reached 63 per cent by the end of September 2012.[2] It was 50.5 per cent by the end of 2011.[3] Internet usage more than doubled from 2007 to 2009 with the rapid growth expected to continue. Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) figures indicate that Internet penetration stood at 29 per cent by the end of 2009 and 38 per cent by the end of 2010.

Mobile broadband network download and upload speeds in Jordan are slightly above the average in Middle East and Africa (MEA) countries, according to a report by Cisco Systems, Inc. The average download speed is 1,801 kilo-bytes per second (kbps), while it is 845kbit/s for uploads. The report indicated that mobile broadband users in the MEA region have an average download speed of 1,792kbit/s and an upload speed of 722kbit/s.[2]

The Jordanian government has announced that the sales tax on computers and internet connection would be removed in order to further stimulate the ICT industry in Jordan. King Abdullah II told the BBC in 2004 that he hoped to make his country the tech hub of the Middle East. Jordan has more internet start up companies than any other country in the Middle East, and thus was dubbed the Middle East's "Silicon Valley". Amman was ranked as the 10th-best city in the world to launch a tech startup, according to a 2012 list compiled by Finaventures, a California-based venture-capital firm.[4][5][6] Tech entrepreneurs have praised the ability to access high speed internet connections in Jordan, comparing this to Dubai and Saudi Arabia.[7]Al Jami'a Street, in Jordan's northern city of Irbid, was ranked as the street with the highest number of internet cafes in the world by the Guinness World Records.

Future

When King Abdullah II ascended to the throne in 1999, he stated his intentions to turn Jordan into the high-tech capital of the Middle East and to create a Silicon Valley-like venture in Jordan. King Abdullah equipped all Jordanian schools with computers and internet connection and instituted an ICT curriculum into Jordan's education system. ICT faculties were established in Jordanian universities and these campuses have been churning out 15,000 ICT graduates every year. Information access centers were established across the Kingdom to allow rural areas access to the Internet.

Jordan will most likely surpass ICT giants like India and Israel if these reforms continue. The Jordanian Government has overwhelming supported these initiative and heavily invested in Jordan's ICT sector. The result is the most competitive ICT industry in the region. Jordan has one of the highest internet penetration rates in the region. All of these accomplishments have happened in the past few years.

By 2011, Jordan will have a 50% internet penetration rate, 35,000 employed in the ICT sector, and over $3 billion revenues.

The number of phone lines has decreased dramatically in the past three years to below 500K telephone lines, due to the introduction of WI-Max technology and 3G networks.

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